Arsenal: Stan Kroenke Funding Showing Moral Breakthrough?

Arsenal’s relationship with Stan Kroenke is a funny one. But his relationship with supporters is less than funny. Has it improved though?

Arsenal supporters are always urging the club to spend. Spend on the big players, spend to win trophies, spend for the fans. The money is there, we all see it. A balanced budget may look good, but it doesn’t look as good with a lack of trophies.

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One area where supporters were never urging Arsenal to spend was in the direction of the mystery £3m payments that kept appearing going to KSE, Stan Kroenke’s sports enterprises (literally). It was an infuriating transaction that could have, at the very least, bought us another Takuma Asano.

It also felt incredibly dishonest. It may not seem like that much money, but it had been going on for two years and, at the time, we had no reason to believe that it was going to stop any time soon. What was it being used for? Because it wasn’t going towards bettering the club.

That fee has now been waived. No mysterious transactions to Stan Kroenke and all of his greatness.

Which makes me wonder – have we made a moral breakthrough? Has Stan Kroenke (I accidentally typed Satan Kroenke at first… that’s not even funny) actually betrayed the fact that he has a heart for this club or did he just wise up and realize how much of an eye sore it was to have on the club financial records?

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My optimistic side wants to say that he actually did this on purpose. He saw these investments the club made in the summer and thought ‘you know what, let’s waive that fee, I can do without the extra pocket cash, it will go towards the club.’

I don’t think it’s as unrealistic as we want to believe. Kroenke has invested in other clubs, like the Colorado Rapids. They took a major influx in players this past off season.

I realize I may be grasping at straws here, but what if Silent Stan has finally warmed up to this whole Arsenal thing and is now set on improving them over his own coffers? It’s a long shot, I’ll admit it.

At the very least, the charges are gone. We can rejoice in that. Kroenke will get no more phantom bonuses from our club. It was a blight on the club and it’s been removed.

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Ivan Gazidis will get them instead!